


Birthday Frustrations

by Neuropsyche



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 12:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20064100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neuropsyche/pseuds/Neuropsyche
Summary: What do you get a kid who doesn't want anything?





	Birthday Frustrations

**Author's Note:**

> This is the result of a late night Discord chat. You can read it as Irondad, or Starker, just a conversation between Tony and Peter about an upcoming birthday

“Come on… you must need _something_…”

Peter shook his head, smiling at the sincerity in Mr. Stark’s expression.

“I can’t think of anything.”

“Really? Or are you just saying that to keep your options open?”

“No. May asked me the same thing, but I _really_ don’t.”

Stark knew that, because _he’d_ gone to May, first, asking her what she was going to get Peter for his birthday. She’d scowled, prettily, and had told him that she was clueless, and if he didn’t give her some hints, soon, the boy was going to end up with underwear and socks.

“A new car? I have a dozen; you could pick one.”

“I’ve _seen_ them. I’m good.”

“It wouldn’t have to be one of _them_. Did you have something else in mind? A sensible sedan?”

Peter shook his head.

“I don’t have a driver’s license.”

“I’ll _buy_ you one.”

“I can’t drive in the city as an adult until I'm 18.”

He knew; he’d checked when he was ten.

“I could pull some strings.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Stark. _Really_. I’m good.”

“Some bling?”

“What?”

“That’s what the kids call it, right? I could get you something shiny. You could impress your friends.”

“If I _had_ any.”

“I’ll buy you some.”

Peter chuckled.

“I have friends, I was just messing with you.”

“You’re _killing_ me, Parker.”

The boy shrugged.

“I don’t need anything. I’m not just saying that. It’s _true_. May takes good care of me.”

“I know that. But you must-“ Tony scowled. “There has to be something you want. Something _crazy_…” 

“You could buy _May_ something. That’d be nice.”

“And I _will_. When it’s her birthday. We’re talking about yours, right now. It’s your special day. What do I get you to make it amazing?”

Peter shrugged, again, helplessly.

“I could use a new dresser…” he suggested. “Mine’s pretty old.”

“I could buy you _IKEA_.”

The boy rolled his eyes, amused.

“I only need _one_ dresser.”

And he really didn’t even need that.

“C’mon, Peter…” Tony said, running his hand through his hair, and torn between amusement and annoyance. “What’s something that you want? Something you want more than anything in the world?”

Peter hesitated, and Tony waited, knowing from his expression that he might have thought of something. There was a moment, but then the boy shook his head, again.

“I can’t think of anything.”

“But you _did_ think of something,” Tony countered. “I saw it in your eyes. What was it?”

“Nothing.”

“It was something.”

“It’s dumb.”

“I’ll get it for you.”

“You won’t.”

“I will.”

“It’s too much.”

Tony smiled.

“Nothing is too much. Haven't you figured that out by now?”

“_This_ is.”

“Tell me. Let me decide.”

“It’s…” Peter sighed. “It’s dumb. Buy me a dresser.”

“No.” Now he was curious, of course. And being Tony Stark, he wasn’t going to drop it. “Tell me.”

“Mr. Stark…”

“Mr. Parker.”

“You’ll laugh. Or worse; you _won’t_.”

Tony rolled his eyes, and reached out and put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, giving him a little shake.

“I won’t laugh, and I won’t _not_ laugh. Okay? Tell me what you want, Peter.”

“I want you to spend time with me. Hanging out with me.”

“We do hang out. In the-“

“In the _workroom_,” Peter interrupted, figuring in for a penny, in for a pound, as the saying goes. “I want to do something else, though. Something that you never do, usually. Something that I don’t do.”

“Like what?”

Peter shrugged.

“I don’t know. I think… That is to say, I… it would be fun to do something with you. Something not work related. Not even _Avengers_ related. But just the two of us.”

“Oh.”

He felt a warm rush of affection for the boy, just then, but Peter misunderstood the expression.

“Pathetic, huh?”

Tony shook his head.

“Not at all. Unexpected, though, I admit. No one’s ever wanted to just spend time with me.”

“I do. And not with Ironman, either. Just you. Tony Stark.”

The older man let his shoulders go, looking at him, speculatively.

“And if we were to spend time together…?” he asked. “What kind of things would we do?”

“I don’t know, exactly.”

Again, though, his expression told Tony that he had a thought. But one he was afraid to voice.

“C’mon… spill it…”

Peter’s hesitation was almost painful to see, and Tony knew no matter what the boy asked for, now, he was going to do it.

Just because.

Certainly not because he cared about him so much.

“It’s…”

“C’mon…”

“What about maybe going camping?”

Tony stared at him.

_“Camping?”_

Peter nodded, his eyes big, and hopeful.

“Ever been?”

“No. You?”

“No. A day camp at the Y, once, but that isn’t what I was thinking… I was thinking a tent, and a fire and hotdogs and s’mores…”

“That’s what you were thinking, huh…?” Tony echoed. “Not a nice cabin in the woods, with beds, and a fireplace, and a kitchen…?”

“No.”

With a purely mental groan, Tony shrugged, and then nodded.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. Your birthday is on a Friday this year, right?”

“I think so.”

Tony knew so. He’d checked the date several times – but not to see if it was prime camping time.

“It _is_. If your aunt says it’s alright, we’ll take the weekend – just the two of us – and go camping.”

It was worth however many million mosquitoes he was going to fending off just to see the way Peter’s eyes lit up, just then.

“Really?”

“I said it, didn’t I?”

“Yes.”

Peter flung his arms around Tony, and the older man hugged him, close, thinking that camping might be fun. Well, no. It probably wouldn’t be fun. There was a reason that he’d never been, before, after all. But spending time with Peter would be fun.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark,” Peter mumbled into his shirt.

“Don’t thank me, yet,” he said, running his finger’s through the boy’s hair. “May still has to sign off on it.”

Peter pulled away, grinning cheerfully.

“She will.”

Of course she would, Tony thought to himself. It was impossible to say no to Peter.

Didn’t Tony just know it?

“But I’m still going to buy you a dresser,” he added.


End file.
